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Renato Sala Laboratory of Geoarchaeology, Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty, e-mail: [email protected] , www.lgakz.org AHMED YASAWI: LIFE, WORDS AND SIGNIFICANCE IN THE KAZAKH CULTURE

The article starts analyzing the spiritual aspects of the culture of the Kazakh people, in particular the role played by funerary rituals, pilgrimages, shamanic practices, and . It proceeds with an introduction to the life, teachings and words of the Sufi master Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (Sayram 1093 AD, Turkestan 1166 AD), underlining the importance, for the Kazakh culture as well as for the entire world, of the Yasawi self-immurement in an underground cell and of the poems (Divan-i Hikmet) transmitted from down there. Finally are analyzed the existing versions of the Divan-i Hikmet, in particular the structure and contents of the 49 hikmet of the Turkestan manuscript of which, as conclusion, is provided a selec- tion of verses translated in English language. Key words: Ahmed Yasawi, Divan-i Hikmet, Central Asian Sufi orders, Kazakh culture

Ренато Сала Әл-Фараби атындағы Қазақ ұлттық университетінің геоэкологиялық зерттеулер зертханасы, Қазақстан, Италия, Алматы, e-mail: [email protected], www.lgakz.org Ахмет Ясауи: өмірі, сөздері және оның қазақ мәдениетіндегі маңызы

Мақалада қазақ халқы мәдениетінің рухани аспектілері, соның ішінде жерлеу рәсімі, қажылық, шамандық наным-сенім, ислам мен сопылық істері қарастырылған. Бұл жұмыста қазақ халқының байырғы мәдениетінің тарихында айрықша орны бар ұлы ақын, сопылық поэзияның негізін салушы, ұлы ойшыл, діни қайраткер Қожа Ахмет Яссауидің (1093, Сайрам -1166, Түркістан), соның ішінде қазақ мәдениеті үшін, бүкіл дүние жүзі үшін оның қалдырған еңбектерінің маңыздылығы жазылған. Өзінің жеке қалауымен жерасты өмір сүріп, сол жерде жазған «Диуани хикмет» жинақ өлеңдері бүгінгі күні бізге жеткен. Қорытындылай келе, «Диуани Хикметтің» қолданыстағы нұсқалары, әсіресе Түркістан қолжазбасындағы 49 хикметтің құрылымы мен мазмұны талданып, оның қорытындысы ретінде ағылшын тіліне аударылған өлеңдерінен үзінді келтіріледі. Түйін сөздер: Ахмет Яссауи, Диуани хикмет, Орта Азиядағы суфизм діндері, қазақ мәдениеті

Ренато Сала Международная Лаборатория геоархеологии, Казахский национальный университет имени аль-Фараби, Казахстан-Италия Алматы, e-mail: [email protected], www.lgakz.org Ахмед Ясави: жизнь, слова и значение в казахской культуре

В статье анализируются духовные аспекты культуры казахского народа, в частности роль погребальных ритуалов, паломничества, шаманской практики, ислам и суфизм. Работа включает в себя о жизни, учениях и словах суфийского мастера Ходжа Ахмет Яссауи (Сайрам 1093 г. н.э., Туркестан 1166 г.) подчеркивая важность как для казахской культуры, так и для всего мира. По его собственной воле Яссауи поселился в подземной камере и его стихи (Диван-и Хикмет) были переданы оттуда. В заключение, анализируются существующие версии Диван-и Хикмет, в частности структура и содержание 49 хикмет туркестанской рукописи, из которых, как вывод, предоставляется отрывок из стихов, переведенных на английский язык. Ключевые слова: Ахмет Яссауи, Диван-и Хикмет, суфийское духовенство в Центральной Азии, казахская культура

© 2018 Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Ahmed Yasawi: life, words and significance in the kazakh culture

1 – Shamanism, religious rituals, believes and whole spiritual needs, so that it operates within spiritual references in the Kazakh culture1 wider religious conceptions with which tries to be compatible and by which is even inspired. In Kazakhstan, in the same way the solidarity Among the Turko-Mongol peoples of Central groups put themselves as the center of the social Asia and Mongolia, starting from 3-4 millennia life and don’t renounce easily to the pretension of ago, spirituality manifests in the form of a natural territorial power at local and national levels, so religiosity called Tengrism, of which the main the patriarchal family and clans always keep under symbolic characteristic is the bipolarity Tengri- control religious creeds and practices. Umai (‘sky-earth’) with the two poles connected by Religious performances in Kazakhstan develop the cosmic tree of the organic life (baiterek). It finds in answer to the practical needs and social interactions analogues among all Siberian peoples, in the Korean of the daily life (healing, fertility, greetings, respect, Muism, in the Chinese Taoism and in the Japanese hospitality, thanksgiving, birthdays, marriages, Shinto. funerals, festivals and calendar events), ending up The main cultic practices are two and deeply by promoting tribal and national affiliations more related: pilgrimages and funerary rituals. Two are political than religious. This character explains why also their objects and rituals: natural entities and Kazakhstan never saw during history the rise of an ancestors, celebrated by prayers made of simple independent code of religious precepts, compulsory formulas and by sheep sacrifices with collective religious creeds and independent clergy, in spite of banquet. the strong attempts in that direction made during the 1.2 – Pilgrimages XVIII-XIX centuries by the Russian colonization. Pilgrimages are oriented towards special natural The few necessary rituals never develop beyond places, mainly springs, hills and mausoleums their pragmatic use: this is true for local pre-Islamic built on tombs or cenotaphs (empty tombs) of shamanic practices as well as for Islamic creeds and illustrious human personages. Actually the most rituals. popular destinations, the ones provided with 1.1 – Shamanism lodging facilities, are sites hosting both healing Shamanism is a term referring to a system springs (or wells) and mausoleums, witnessing the of practices and techniques of religious ecstasy interconnection of natural and funerary cults, the engendered in the context of small human synchronic worship of living and dead elements. communities in order to establish harmony and This is the case of several pilgrim sites, like the fertility within human, animal, vegetal and cosmic Kazigurt mountain of South KZ, which represents cycles. It consists in investing a most sensitive a microcosm of natural, mythical and historical person, a shaman (bakshi), with the task of getting events that all together became object of worship. possessed by spirits in order to manage the relation The place is inserted in a landscape underpinned between humans and the invisible world, in particular by springs and sheep-shaped stones (koytas) and for physical thaumaturgy, dispelling bad spirits, ‘covered’ by a thick layer of legends of different appealing to ancestors, foreseeing the future, calling epochs: it is referred as the cradle of Ana and Ata, for rain (tasattyk), favoring communal integration the forbearers of the human race, or as a kind of and providing theatrical support in festivals and mount Ararat, and hosts the mausoleum of Akbura- ceremonies (toys). These tasks are pursued in specific Ata, a Zoroastrian saint who healed people and spaces and times by the bakshi and few helpers taught monotheism. through the manipulation of elements and gestures, On pilgrimage sites is ordinarily performed the onomatopoeic sounds, words, songs, music, dances, sacrifice of a sheep or, in important occasions, of of which the knowledge is transmitted person to a horse, accompanied with prayers and collective person from an unknown past. Today in most of banquet. One-day pilgrimages are done to just one the world shamanist practices are incorporated in place by entire families, occasionally accompanied the ritual context of a soteriological religion or in by a Moslem cleric (mullah). Long pilgrimages are the field of pseudo-medical science; also in modern done during the summer season by individual itinerant Kazakhstan they are much reduced but still in vogue pilgrims (palomnik) across several mausoleums and respected and, of course, merged within newly mainly of South and West Kazakhstan. introduced Islamic formulas. Today enveloped in the Islamic frame, with Such practical technique for solving specific shamans promoted to (Muslim itinerant problems, made of concrete actions more than of mendicants), the pre-Islamic cults of nature and words and conceptualizations, doesn’t cover the ancestors are still very alive and interactive,

116 Хабаршы. Тарих сериясы. №2 (89). 2018 Renato Sala connecting springs and landforms with mythical and legends3 but by now deprived of bones: the bones of historical beings. Bifatima will be most probably the first. Cults are imbedded in poetic legends and It is difficult saying when these nature and dedicated, in order of importance, to: ancestor cults started developing: most probably – saints associated with the first they are the last manifestation of an uninterrupted in Arabia: Mukhammad the prophet, his daughter Stone Age tradition that underwent only secondary Fatima; changes. Certainly the centrality of the sheep – Sufi saints protagonists of the spread of Islam in funerary rituals, sacrifices and petroglyph in the Central Asian deserts and steppes: Baba-Ata, representations characterizes the local cultures all Arystanbab, Ahmed Yasawi, Ismail-Ata, Sunak- along the last 3000 years, from the Early Iron age Ata, etc.; to now. Deep historical roots can be suspected in – mythical forefathers of some tribes, like the several Kazakh customs, suggesting a consideration couple Baidabek-Ata and Domalak-Ana2, protectors of primary importance: the basic spirituality of the of the great juz against the Jungars; modern Kazakh people is surely very simple but in – mythical ancestral saints patronizing human the same time most ancient, deep and determined, activities like fertility, works, arts and knowledge: keeping almost unchanged for thousands of years. Aiman-Sholpan, a woman ancestor ensuring 1.3 – Islam fertility; Kydyr-Ata (see note 59), a traveling old Islam diffused in Kazakhstan in two waves. The man with the eyes hidden under long eyebrows, who first wave started 1200 years ago in the Syrdarya announces the new year and masters renovation; region, introduced from the south by Sufi Shopan-Ata, protector of sheep-breeding; Kambar- during the Arab domination of the Central Asian Ata, of horse-breeding; Baba Tukty, of warriors caravan routes; the second happened 250 years ago and heroes; Korkut-Ata, of shamans and musicians; and concerned all Kazakhstan, this time introduced etc.; from the west (Kazan), promoted by Russian – benign anthropomorphic natural spirits imperial needs of territorial control rather than by associated with the cult of nature: Aidarly (‘dragon’), popular soteriological concern. a kind of natural energy, a mana-force that embodies In both cases Islam was spread in the steppes enlightened personages; Aulie-Bastau (‘sacred by the action of Sufi masters, respecting and spring’), associated with the cult of springs and adopting previous ancient cults and converting lakes; Zhilagan-Ata (‘crying old man’), associated former spiritual wanderers into Moslem dervishes. with the cult of mountains; etc.. In Kazakhstan it mainly provided new names and In all cases the pilgrimage performance and the symbols for ancient practices, i.e. for the basic presence of springs and mausoleums supporting simple rituals of the Kazakh daily life: salutations, a legendary account are more important than the endings, wishes, marriages, births, deaths and historicity and individuality of the saint himself, so burials. It arrived to introduce specific Moslem that just the building of a mausoleum in the right rituals, festivities and clergy men (mullah) only place would promote in few decades the cult of among the farming communities of the Syrdarya any particular tomb or bone buried under it. This region, traditionally exposed to strong cultural is the case of several modern mausoleums, like the influences from Transoxiana. mausoleum built at the periphery of Almaty for the The Moslem ritual calendar had been juxtaposed XVIII century warrior Raimbek and for the XIX to former feasts: baptism at birth (shildekhana), century poet Suyunbai which out of two popular circumcision of young males (syndiettey), yearly figures generated two saints and in few decades fasting (oraza) with final festival (oraza ait), became a holy destination. sacrificial feast 40 days after death kurban( ait) and Also purely natural sites with springs or then again after 1 year; etc.. The 16 July festival impressive rocks formations or caves or panoramic commemorating the flight from tops, when provided by a serious with (hijrah), which signs the start of the first lunar opportune legends, a holy itinerary and simple month, of the 12 lunar months’ year and of the accommodation facilities, can become in few years Muslim era, is considered most important but didn’t a destination for spiritual travels. This is the case arrive to impose its own chronology. of the pilgrimage and therapeutic site recently The impact of Islam has been higher in funerary developed by the woman dervish Bifatima on a hill rituals. Here it simplified and democratized the in the surroundings of the Ungurtas village (80 km previous customs by reducing the burial to a west of Almaty), provided of springs, landforms and simple pit for a veiled corpse, without ornaments

ISSN 1563-0269 Journal of history. №2 (89). 2018 117 Ahmed Yasawi: life, words and significance in the kazakh culture or accompanying objects and with architectural sacrificial animals: the sheep by its submissiveness, extravagances absent or limited to a circumscribing the horse by its speed and vibratile pace exploding construction. in different tempos. A third animal gets involved in All Kazakhs consider themselves as good sacrificial and funerary rituals at the turn of our era Moslem but very few give importance to regular together with the blossoming of continental caravan prayers (daily home prayers are practiced by few, routes: the camel (with one or two humps), i.e. the and so are Friday prayers at the ) or would be master of transports in desert environments. able or interested in explaining doctrinal positions Information about past conceptions of death or engaging in theological debates (‘Does God becomes more abundant in Turkic medieval times. exist?’, ‘Does the world have a beginning?’). The The Turkic world view (Tengrism) deeply differs friendly tolerance for different religions (or atheistic from the view of Near Eastern monotheistic religions positions) and the interest for scientific knowledge by missing the cosmogonic approach, in the sense are considered much healthier and productive that that among early Turks an origin for the natural world the elaboration of a personal system of creeds or the is not even suspected and doesn’t need any answer: pretension to impose it to others. nature exists by itself, supreme, irreducible; life and 1.4 – Meditation on death death are cycles within inscrutable ever changing Meditation on death, which in the consumerist natural dynamics. What is questioned is the ancestry societies of our days is rare and discouraged, is of the human race, which is conceived as springing central in all religions4 and plays a most important from natural elements, inorganic or organic − the role in the , in particular among Sufi ground, a tree, a she-wolf − and developing through communities. It is deeply rooted in the Kazakh a lineage of mythical personages and heroes culture where is individually and socially manifested (DeWeese 1994). Even the assimilation of the by the importance given to elders, funerary rituals Turks within Islam at the end of I millennium AD and pilgrimages to mausoleums. didn’t arrive to introduce the cosmogonic paradigm, Kazakh elders are charged with the duty of it only introduced a new kind of primeval human silently guarding the final door of life and, for ancestor. In times of Turkic alliance or dependence this reason, are invested with respect and spiritual from the Islamic world, such ancestor was Japheth consideration and their words are highly esteemed, (Yafith), son of Noah and mythical progenitor of which in exchange allows the younger generations to all European and Central Asian peoples; in times enjoy the plenitude of life, undisturbed by existential of conflict and Turkic supremacy, he was a Central problems until their turn of spiritual responsibility Asian personage, Afrasiyab, a pre-islamic Turanian ripens with age. That conscious regard of old age king spoken in the Avesta and then similarly in and death characterizes the family life as well the Islamic sources as an archenemy of , a demon Kazakh society as a whole, and is so well rooted that causing war, draught and desolation5. makes suspecting the persistency of a very ancient Several mythical and historical figures rooted tradition. in medieval times are embedded in the Kazakh We know very little about the conception of culture through the memorial transmission of death among the prehistoric pastoralist groups of the legends, biographies and words. Most illustrious Kazakhstan territory. are three personages who made of death the core Legends (see here below ‘Korkut-Ata’) speak of their message: Korkut-Ata, Ahmed Yasawi and about the existence of a mythical period when death Abai Kunanbaev. They had the strongest impact in was faced without fear but with desire and joy: a shaping the Kazakh culture and still today constitute mental state that paleo-ethnographic investigations its main references, representing respectively the cannot detect but that possibly is still held today mythical, spiritual and moral spheres. secretly by enlightened individuals. Korkut-Ata (‘frightened ancestor’) is the Starting from the Bronze Age and increasingly legendary musician of the oldest Turkic legends during the Saka period, two archetypical animals (VI-VII century AD), of whom the tomb is shown play a major role in funerary rituals: the sheep and on the shores of the lower Syrdarya river. In spite of the horse. This is witnessed by the presence of their the fact that he had been said that “whoever desires remains in burial assemblages and of their figures death, he will not die”, he got scared of it and in shaping funerary objects and constructions and spent the entire 295 years of his long life floating, as dominant subjects of petroglyph representations. together with his camel, on a carpet carried by the Both animals present virtues helping the travel stream of the Syrdarya, uninterruptedly playing a across death and making of them privileged magic violin (kobyz) in order to dispel death…his

118 Хабаршы. Тарих сериясы. №2 (89). 2018 Renato Sala only listener! In that sense, Korkut represents the How many years must pass before the words existentialist drama of the modern man, conscious and deeds of Ahmed Yasawi would express their of death and determined to resist to it, with fear and full potential and inspire at all levels the culture of determination, in an enchanted state of mind. modern Kazakhstan? Or before a new generation Ahmed Yasawi is the Sufi master and main saint of of saints would recover and teach the forgotten Kazakhstan who solved the unending contraposition mythical way of joyful death? between Korkut and death by dissolving one of the 2 poles of the contrast, the individual self. The 2 – The Sufi movement and its spread in Yasawi’s path of self dissolution is mystical, i.e. Kazakhstan (VIII-XII AD) based on total detachment, faith, love and joyful annihilation in God. In the year 1166 AD, aged 63 2.1 – Sufism (the age of the prophet’s death) he decided it was Sufism (‘rough garb’) is a very peculiar minority time to withdraw from the material world: he entered movement within Islam that follows a spiritual a virtual dying scenario by retiring without return in journey (tasawwuf) based on individual moral a 3 m deep underground cell that is still shown today responsibility and mystical6 relation with the divine. near his mausoleum in Turkestan. It is from down The adepts go through a path of renunciation, there that, for years, he spoke and transmitted his , love, knowledge and annihilation of the wisdom (hikmet) in poems (divan-i). individual soul in God (Fig. 1). Abai Kunanbaev (1845-1904 AD) is a kind of 2.1.1 – Sufi history existentialist poet, translator and philosopher who Sufis are as old as Islam and co-substantial with opened the Kazakh culture to the external world and it. They are counted among the nearer followers of became the main reference of the modern Kazakh Muhammad (sahabah), the ones who pledge alliance nation. At the end of his life, when writing the (bay‘ah) to Muhammad and Allah and claim to be introduction of his pamphlet of moral sayings (Kara descendants of the prophet through Ali7, by which sodzeri, Words of edification), declares to have they are called alawi (followers of ) and deserve grown total disgust for the Russian colonial policies the honorific name ofsayyid (‘valiant master’). as well as for the behavior of his own people, to They have always been a fringe movement who be tired of everything and in solitude, to be empty took up the call of spreading Islam in the peripheries of expectations and hopes, and confesses that he and defending Muslim sites from enemies and is writing few moral aphorisms and poems just Crusaders. They appeared in the VI century AD because he doesn’t know what else to do. Abai is a as pious circles of ascetics practicing night prayers sad man and certainly doesn’t manifest the Yasawi’s and meditations on the doomsday (ashratu’s saah) joy for dying, but doesn’t even show resistance or passages of the Quran, by which became known as pretension of immortality: nature, morality and “those who always weep” or “those who consider religiosity provide the bridge. this world as a hut of sorrows”. Then, in few Among these examples, most significant for the centuries, under the influence of early Christian past and present Kazakh culture and also the one mystics emphasizing love () and annihilation in endowed of highest potential of worldwide resonance God (fanaa), their ascetism changed into are the life, teachings, verses and mausoleum and their sects, inspired by Egyptians, Gnostic and of the Sufi master Ahmed Yasawi. This saint Zoroastrians mystery schools, became organized arrived to emphasize the aspects of renunciation, around brotherhoods and holy places, often the compassionate love and divine knowledge deeply tombs of the brotherhood founders. Sufis ended rooted in the Moslem tradition, and to develop them up considering the Quran just their original ‘shell’, with his living example and words at a level far above feeling at home in all religions and “disliking being any particular culture, creed or school. He conveyed given any inclusive name which might force them a message of universal significance capable of into doctrinal conformity” (Shah 1964, introduction answering the spiritual needs of the modern humans, by R. Graves). which make of him a spiritual vanguard not only for From the earliest times the succession of Sufi the Sufi and Muslim communities but for the entire Sheikhs as heads of a lineage () or a lodge planet. Groups of followers are still gathering around (tekke) could happen by heredity or by discipleship. his mausoleum in Turkestan and even abroad; and, The hereditary family succession was the general rule after independence, actions have been taken by local in Sufi orders centralized around a mother lodge and and international institutions in order to restore his promoted the establishment of longstanding spiritual tomb and spread his teachings. dynasties. The non-hereditary succession, based

ISSN 1563-0269 Journal of history. №2 (89). 2018 119 Ahmed Yasawi: life, words and significance in the kazakh culture on sainthood, spiritual transmission or economical XII AD); Kubrawiyya, from Najmuddin Kubra power, became majoritarian in the XVIII AD among (Khorezm, XIII AD); Naqshbandiyya, inspired open-minded reformist communities and was more by and Abdulkhaliq Gujduwani exposed to divisions and mergers (Zarcone 2007). (Baghdad and , XII-XIII AD) and founded by Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari (early XIV AD)8. Later on, other Sufi orders reached Central Asia from Iran () and (Shattariyya)9. It is during its second phase of historical development that Sufism produced the highest number of saints and martyrs, spiritual masters and enlightened political leaders and, by incorporating shamanistic, Zoroastrian, Manichaean and Buddhist elements met in the territories of its spread10, arrived to express a most tolerant path of justice and spirituality that ranges among the highest and most complete spiritual attainments of mankind. The mission of Ahmed Yasawi represents the supreme mystic expression and apotheosis of this second phase of Sufi development. Today Sufism constitutes a peaceful significant alternative to Islamic extremism and is in rapid expansion. Its orders are counted by hundreds and Figure 1 – Muslim ascetic in Eastern Bengal adherents or sympathizers around one hundred in the 1860s (Wikipedia, Ascetism) millions. They are most numerous in India and present in every Muslim country, sometimes flourishing in clandestinity because persecuted, In the development of the Sufi movement three like from the 20ies in and Soviet Union and phases are distinguished. The early phase (VI-VIII today openly in Saudi Arabia and secretly in Iran11. century AD) is strictly ascetic [Hasan of Basra 3.1.2 – Sufi spiritual system (VII AD), Rabi-ah, Majnun, al-Misri (VII), Adham In , the God’s reason for (VIII)]. The second phase (IX-XII AD) is mystic the creation of cosmos and humankind is the (devoted to cosmic love) as well as speculative, “manifestation” and “recognition” of Himself, manifesting the Sufi path of annihilation in God and the divine descent happens in six stages, from in most brilliant practical and literary ways [al- abstract to concrete (Koslovski 2001, p. 99). In Sufi Muharisi, Dhu-an-Nun al-Misri, al-Bistami, psychology the human mind is constituted by three Junaid Baghdadi (IX), Shibli, Mansur al-Hallaj levels in dynamic interaction: a lower self called (X), Ghazali, Khayyam?(XI), Farid od-Din Attar, the (ego), a faculty of spiritual intuition called Ahmed Yasawi (early XII)]. The third phase the qalb (heart), and the ruh (spirit) (Schimmel (starting at the end of the XII AD) sees the popular 2013). The Sufi mystical path (tariqah12) climbs spread, multiplication and political involvement of in reverse way the stages of the divine descent: it fraternal orders (turuq, tariqah), the development of is entered under the stimuli of fear, is guided by epistemological and mystical treatises and literary the search of knowledge and love, and develops poetry, but also moralist tendencies and softening stabilizing the highest level of the mind (ruh). of the mystical discipline [Nizami (XII), Najmuddin God’s intimacy increases along a process Kubra, , , Moinuddin Chishti of purification tahara ( ) made of dispassion for (XIII), Hajrat Nizamuddin, Nasiruddin Chirag- earthly pleasures, growing knowledge and love, Dehlavi (XIV), (XV)]. dissolution of the ego (), abiding in God (baqa). In the X AD the Sufis who had strongholds Accordingly, the Sufi spiritual training proceeds in Khorasan and Margiana spread to Central Asia across four main stations (maqam, plural maqamat) where gave rise to 3 historically important and − two exoteric and two esoteric13: still active orders called all together (a – Shariah (revealed law, rules): serving God; Persian term meaning ‘masters’), in chronological – Tariqah (path): facing God − accomplishment order: Yasawiyya, from Ahmed Yasawi (Turkestan, of the Shariah by entering the Sufi order, following a

120 Хабаршы. Тарих сериясы. №2 (89). 2018 Renato Sala spiritual mentor () and traveling the mystical cathartic practices of medieval kabalistic mystics path of love and knowledge; (Abulafia, Askenazi Hasidim), and the unending – Aqiqah, (essence, ultimate truth, gnosis): repetitions of God’ name of the Orthodox monks. esoteric absorption and dissolution of the self by These wide similarities are witnessing the annihilation in God; existence in all religions of a common mystic – Marifah (divine knowledge, mystical union): core and proof the universal significance of the achievement of the unseen ecstatic center of the Sufi teachings and of the Ahmed Yasawi life and Aqiqah, where craving for God will radiate divine message. Evidently the same mystic search was and love and compassion and feed the universe. is going on under different spiritual flags. During spiritual retreats (khalvat), besides Influences on Sufism from the Persian culture are prayers (), sermons (sohbah) and discursive obvious, influences from the Indian culture cannot self-examination (muhasaba), the deepest and most be underestimated18. The life of Ahmed Yasawi and technical spiritual exercises are muqaraba and . the rise of the Central Asian Sufi schools fall within Muqaraba (‘watch over’) consists of the time of the Kharakanid Khanate (999-1211) at meditating − in sitting or walking pose and with the north of the Amudarya and, south of it, of the mindfulness on breathing − on different objects, Ghaznavid Empire (977-1163). The Ghaznavid mainly mental objects inside your heart, for dynasty emerged from the Turkic slave guards of the accessing the deepest layers of the mind. It promotes Samanid Empire and, centered in NE Afghanistan, a process of abstraction from initial distraction dominated a huge territory from the Caspian to the to stable concentration, followed by ascension to Yamuna river, establishing a bridge between the direct vision until 3 final stages of enlightening Persian, N-Indian and Central Asian worlds. Under annihilation (fanaa): in the Master, in Muhammad their rule the Khoresmian scholar Ahmad Al-Biruni (s.a.w.), in Allah (a.s.)14. (973-1048) authored important studies of the Indian Dhikr (or zikr, ‘remembrance’) consists in cultures (‘Indica’) and even provided an direct concentration on the Divine by intimations translation of the ‘Yoga Sutra’ of Patanjali19. His of holy names or formulas (wazaif). It is generally works had a big impact on Sufism, being that “in supported by rhythmic breath-work (fikr) and his Indica analyses explicitly the parallels between accompanying movements15 designed to create a Yoga and Sufism and finds them to have agood ‘fly-wheel’ in the consciousness and disrupt its number of common motives” (Safronov 2014) and normal state. It involves the physical, emotional in his translation of the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras he and mental spheres; can be individual or collective; describes in details the relation between breathing can be practical (performed together with obedient exercises and states of mind, which constitutes the actions), loud (jahri)16 or silent (khafi)17. The silent basis of the Sufi training. dhikr is also called dhikr al-qalbi (‘remembrance of On another side the Sufi doctrines present points the heart’) because obtained by progressing from the of contrast with mainstream Islam: metaphoric vocal dhikr in the mouth to the silent dhikr in the reading (ta’well) of passages of the Quran and roots of the mind, the heart. the literature20; devotion to living sheikhs Dhikr is a central element of the practice of (moral and spiritual authorities), dead saints and every Sufi school and has several variants: Sufi mythical masters; incorporation of rituals and orders are most often distinguished by their specific music in spiritual practices; possibility of union style of dhikr, which is kept secret. with the creator; significance of all religions; The doctrinal positions and spiritual practices of refusal of politics and violence; open mindedness Sufism share strict analogies with the teachings of towards innovations. These points, which surely other religions, in particular with Middle East and characterized the doctrine of Yasawi, constituted in Indian mystic expressions like: the 8 yoga stages of the past as today matters of debate and controversy the Patanjali sutras and the emotional devotionalism between Sufis and orthodox Muslims and even of the bhakti Hinduist movement; the 8 stages of between Sufi orders of Sunni or Shia orientation21. extinction of the self by breathing (anapanasati) and Sufi sects were also vulnerable within themselves insight (vipassana) meditation of the Early Buddhist to succession disputes and internal divisions, which schools, the 8 stages of the bodhisattva path in favored the formation of offsprings. Mahayana Buddhism, and the focusing on visionary 2.2 – The Khoja states of Tibetan yoga. Resemblances are also shared West Central Asia and the Syrdarya region with the 4 stages of ‘Lectio divina’ of the earliest in particular, due to their location at the northern Christian monks, the breathing techniques and borders of the Islamic world, during the VIII-IX

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AD constituted a refuge for political and religious a common paternal ancestor, genetic tests of living dissidents of the , so that the penetration members witness among the four sub-clans very of Islam in the Central Asian territory is strictly pronounced Y-chromosome variations and different connected with the multiplication and spread of Y-DNA haplogroups: the group, with heterodox religious groups22. Hp D, L, O, C3 and R1a, is genetically the most The first wave consisted in the immigration in diversified, apparently related to the Naqshbandiyya West Central Asia of anti-caliphate movements like order where not biological but spiritual transmission the Khurramiya and Mubayyidite mixing Iranian has always been fundamental; the Umar group has religions with Islamic teachings, which conferred dominant Hp R2a, which is common in South and to the Islam of Central Asia a multiform aspect Central Asia; the Ali group, with dominant Hp J2, is and a deeply rooted tolerant character and political the nearer to the original Quraysh tribe and probably orientation23. also to the Ahmed Yasawi genotype; the Hanafiyyah In South Kazakhstan the process of Islamization group has dominant Hp R1a and G1, acquired in was accomplished under the action of the Khoja the XIV AD with the spread of Islam among the (Hoja, Hodja, Kozha) tribe24, a strong ethnic group Golden Horde and the Khoja admixture respectively diffused everywhere within the and with Kipchak and Argyn tribes. All together these considering itself a religious order within the Ismaili differences exclude a common paternal ancestry Shia Islam. Its members, who enter the clan only and point instead to several unrelated forefathers, by birth and are basically endogamic, pretend to implying that the silsila (lineage) of the Khoja be descendant from the same Quraysh tribe of the groups has not been strictly biological but largely prophet’s clan and trace their lineage at least from accompanied by spiritual transmission (Zhabagin et Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah (or Abi Talib or al. 2017). , 633-700 AD), the third son of Ali (prophet’s cousin and fourth caliph) counted among the early 3 – Life and teachings of Khoja Ahmed dissidents of the Caliphate and the founders of the Yasawi Shiite politico-religious faction. The pretension of spiritual leadership and the dissident political The chronology, family lineage, life, military character have been from the very beginning spiritual affiliation, death, teachings and spiritual typical traits of the Khoja tribe25. succession of Ahmed Yasawi are all surrounded The Khoja reached Western Central Asia around by vivid legends. In the traditional hagiographic 735, few years after the Arab invasion of 706-715, works, biographic data concerning Ahmed Yasawi and during the weakening of state power used to put are often distorted by quotations concerning his their members as leaders of self-government bodies miraculous powers like bringing rain with the of central cities. They had a stronghold in Tashkent help of the magic Yada-Tashi stone, calling the and from there diffused to the north, east and west. dead back to life, turning into a bird (perendelik, The main protagonist has been Khoja Ishaq Bab26, possibly referring to the homologous Sufi dance), a military cadre and religious leader who settled in moving mountains, etc. (DeWeese 2006, p. xvii). Tashkent around 780 and, together with his uncle Here below is expounded a blending of the Hazini’s and brother and descendants, promoted the spread reliable accounts and of historical knowledge about of Islam to the north, among the Turks: Sayram, the the Yasawi life28. middle Syrdarya, and the Karatau mountain region 3.1 – Life of Ahmed Yasawi (1093-1166) where today his tomb is venerated (Baba Ata). Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (later also known as Around the X AD the religious expansion got the Hazrat-i Turkistan or -i Turkestan)29 was born shape of a dissident Sufi sect, making of Ishaq Bab in Sayram (Ispijab, South Kazakhstan)30 in 1093 the ancestor of the Sufi lineages of Kazakhstan and AD. His father, Ibrahim ibn Mahmud, was of Ahmed Yasawi himself27. a famous learned man (mullah, , sheikh) About the ethnic identification and lineages of and religious master (pir, sultan) of the Khoja the Khoja of Central Asia, illuminating are some community, pertaining to the school of recent studies. On the basis the Khoja genealogical Islamic jurisprudence ()31. His mother was records, four sub-clans are detected testifying four Aisha Khatun Iftikhar, daughter of one of Ibrahim’s different lines of paternal ascent, in order of antiquity: disciples. With the help of another local Hanafi to Abu Bakr (first caliph), to Umar (second caliph), scholar, Bakh ad-Din Ispijabi, the father introduced to Ali (fourth caliph), and to Hanafiyyah (Ali’s the son from early childhood to the religious life and son). In spite of the traditional Khoja pretension of to the study of sciences.

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At the age of 7 Ahmed became orphan of both death and adapted the Islamic message to local parents and moved with his older sister, Gawhar, customs in ways unusual even among Sufi masters, to the town of Yasi (or to Otrar) located on the embracing the Turkic shamanistic background: he Middle Syrdarya and renamed in the XVI century as abolished differences between men and women Turkestan. Here − the legend says − while walking in (see note 41), showed tolerance for other religions the fields with the Quran on his head and backward and for local ritual practices like ancestors worship as not to turn its back to Mecca, was watched by and pilgrimages to mausoleums, and emphasized Arystanbab (Arslan Bab, meaning in Arabic ‘lion individual freedom and knowledge. gate master’), a two and half meters high man of He practiced and taught the mystic way dark complexion very popular among the Turkic (tasavvuf) and had 10000 followers, many good people, at first Zoroastrian clericmobed, ( ‘master students and novices () and an uninterrupted of magians’) and then Muslim leader of the local line of successors (khalifah), becoming in that way Mubayyidite movement. Aristanbab asked Ahmed the spiritual ancestor of all Turkic tribes. A popular to become his disciple and passed to him the date brotherhood rose around him and ended up as a fruit that he expressly received from the Prophet school (tariqah) called Yasawiyya, representing one and carried until that moment in his mouth (see also of the three important Sufi orders of Central Asia. noteһ 41). Arystanbab accomplished his mission of providing spiritual guidance and died the following year when “70,000 weeping angels appeared transporting him to paradise” (Koprolu 2006, p. 21). Ahmed remained in Yasi (or possibly returned to Sayram) where he started performing miracles and composing verses in Arabic, Persian, and Chagatai- Turkic language. He married, had a son (Ibrahim) who died during his father life and a daughter (Gawhar) who will continue the family lineage (see note 43). Then, at the age of 27, feeling in love for God, decided to find an enlightened master and went to Bukhara, at the time considered the ‘dome of Islam’. Here he became student of Khoja Yusuf Hamadani (1049-1140), a gentle and strict sheikh related through 8 transmission links (silsil) to the spiritual authority of the prophet and inspirer of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi order. He probably traveled with him to Merv and in various countries, received Figure 2 – Khoja Ahmed Yasawi the authorization (ijazah) to preach Sufi doctrines (image freely distributed on the internet). and, counted among the three nearer disciples, after the death of Hamadani and of his first successor In 1166, at the age of 63, lamenting for the death became sheikh of the Bukhara lodge32. In that of Muhammad the prophet, Ahmed Yasawi withdrew way the establishment in early XIV AD of the in an underground cell (khiluet, chillakhona)34 dug Naqshbandiyya order and its very successful history on one side of his lodge in Yasi-Turkestan (Fig. 3). are indebted also to the Yasawi spirituality. Finally, already mature in age, Ahmed decided It is a tradition for lovers to die alive: to follow the Arystanbab example and diffuse Khoja Ahmed Yasawi heard it, read it, Islam beyond the Syrdarya, among the Turks. So and went underground. he returned to Yasi (from which comes his title May I be annihilated on the path of love, oh Lord. Whatever You do, make me be in love. Yasawi) at the northern borders of the Central Asian urbanized region and free refuge for persecuted At 63 it was said to be a tradition, intellectuals and mystics. In his mission at first he so, lamenting for Muhammad, I came down here. encountered some obstacles but finally received high My friends on earth fell into mourning, recognition as a venerable scientist33, poet, preacher, the whole world cried saying ‘my Sultan’. spiritual guide (sheikh, murshid) and mystic (Fig The real Sufis in the truth greatly suffered when, lamenting for Muhammad, I came down here (H4735) 2). He praised the ascetic life and meditation on

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Figure 3 (left) – Entrance of the Yasawi’s underground cell. Fig 4 (right) – Yasawi’s sarcophagus in serpentine stone.

Figure 5 – Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Turkestan, hosting the Yasawi’s tomb under the smaller dome on the back of the central axis, and also a mosque, juridical hall, library, well, kitchen and dervish lodges. The construction was promoted by Emir Timur in 1385 and realized by the architect Khoja Husayn Shirazi, but after Timur’s death in 1405 the façade was left unfinished and in 1591 was only partly reinforced by the Amir of Bukhara. The mausoleum represents one of the best preserved Timurid monumental complexes (kulliya), the largest dome in Central Asia and, due to innovations in building technology, also the prototype of Timurid architecture that inspired similar constructions in Central Asia, Khorasan, Azerbaijan and North India. The outer walls are decorated by faience tiles and by an upper band of Arabic inscriptions of holy names and Quran verses (al-An‘am 6: 59-63). (Aerial photo by R. Sala, view to W).

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From that cell Ahmed never returned back. The and, as a whole, in the medieval funerary rituals of underground retirement has been by far the most Middle East and Central Asia. significant event of his life and his deepest spiritual Ahmed was buried in Yasi one hundred meters teaching: down there – the legend says – he lived 10 north of his chillakhona, under a small mausoleum or 22 or 60 years longer and transmitted 99000 (i.e. (turbe) that immediately became an important ‘many’) spiritual verses. pilgrimage destination. Emir Timur in 1366 His dead body could not be touched and buried conquered Yasi, became a Yasawi devotee (Koprulu by anyone but another contemporary saint called 2006, p.29) and in 1385 started building on his tomb ‘Karabura’, meaning ‘black Bactrian camel’, which a grandiose mausoleum that became and still is one remembers the central role played by the camel in of the most visited places in Central Asia (Fig. 4, the life and death of the mythical musician Korkut 5, 6).

Figure 6 – Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi: back entrance leading to the tomb (photo G. Bedenko).

3.2 – The Yasawiyya order tribes of Khorezm, the Middle-Low Syrdarya, the The Yasawiyya order started to be structured pre-Caspian region, and West Kazakhstan37, which along family lineages and then increasingly by all together always represented the geographic spiritual transmission, in accord with the results stronghold of the order. By the XIV AD the of Y-DNA tests of Khoja members quoted Yasawiyya diffused in Transoxiana (until the XIX in section 2.2. The first direct disciples, all century it held a prominent position at the court endowed of miraculous powers, have been Hakim of Bukhara) and farther in all directions: among Suleiman Baqirghani (Hakim Ata), Muhammad the Northern Turks of the Volga; in the form of Danishmand36, Mansur Ata (quoted by some offsprings like the Khalwatiyya and Bektashiyya sources as son of Arystanbab and first Yasawi among the Western Turks of Azerbaijan, Anatolia successor) and the legendary Shopan Ata. They and the Balkans38; and to Khorasan, Kashmir and respectively diffused the order among the Turkic Xingjiang39 (Fig. 7).

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Figure 7 – Reconstruction of the Yasawiyya lineages and offsprings from XI to XIV AD according to Trimingham (1971, p. 59).

“The Yasawiyya was a tariqah of wanderers, ethics’) and Divan-i Hikmet (‘Book of Wisdom’). with few distinctive branches and permanent The first two works are instructions to students and settlements, except whose associated with tombs of dervishes about the stations (maqam) of the spiritual sheikhs to which pilgrimage became a permanent training42. The Divan-i Hikmet (Book of Wisdom) feature of Central Asian Islam” (Trimingham is a collection of spiritual poems (hikmet) that have 1971, p. 59). Some offsprings like the Bektashiyya been transmitted to us in different transcriptions adopted extreme positions, “looking upon Islamic from an unknown original form. religious obligations as externals of little or no These three works are quoted by legends as spiritual value in the quest for knowledge of God… composed in the underground cell, which seems to and developing eclectic believes from Gnosticism, be true for the Divan-i Hikmet but not so for the Yoga, Shamanism and Christianity” (Moosa 1988). other 2 doctrinal works that probably had their The Yasawiyya order developed with basic contents orally transmitted or written by the uninterrupted lineage until at least the XVI AD master during his entire spiritual mission and, by when some communities started joining the containing explicit quotations of Yasawi words, Naqshbandiyya and became totally absorbed in it have been clearly compiled and manipulated after by the end of the XIX century40. Today only few his death. The three works are analyzed in detail in Yasawiyya offsprings are still active, of which 2 section 3.3.2 and 4. in the Fergana valley: the ‘Lachi’ sect in Osh, and Fragments of Yasawi teachings are also the ‘Hairy Shan’ in Arslanbob41. They both control expounded indirectly in small treatises and entire villages and have been serious opponents of hagiographical compilations written by disciples the Soviet regime. and sheikhs of the Yasawiyya order or branching 3.3 – Teachings of Ahmed Yasawi sects or in works of and Kubrawi rivals, 3.3.1 – Works of Yasawi and of his descendants together with narratives, genealogies and precious The tradition attributes to Ahmed Yasawi several citations of original Yasawi’s sayings (Hasan 2017). works, of which only three arrived to us: Paqirnama The most important are the following six texts. (or Fakr-name, ‘Epistle to the poor-dervish’), The “Nasabnama” (genealogy book) is a Risala dar adaby Tariqat (‘Teachings on Tariqah genealogical history and hagiography of the master

126 Хабаршы. Тарих сериясы. №2 (89). 2018 Renato Sala and of his ancestors who spread Islam in Transoxiana stages of spiritual training and, as a whole, excels written during Yasawi time. It reports a large amount by the supremacy of his living example and by the of historical and legendary narratives about his life43, enchanting power of his poetry and prose. the habit of 40 days solitary retreat, his relation with Paqirnama mentors, students and the immortal saint Khizr, his It is a manuscript of 5000 words, of which miracles (the imam Marwazi, the bushered ox, the copies are preserved in the Tashkent, Dushanbe jar of love, etc) all looking as edifying parables. and Almaty National Libraries. It consists of a Most significant is the‘Mirat ul-Qulub’ (‘Mirror detailed analysis of the path of salvation. (Yasawi, of the Heart’), a doctrinal work ascribed to his Pakirnama; Eraslan 2016) direct disciple Muhammad Danishmand (XII AD), The text starts with the description of the 4 main of which the title points to its power of making stations (shariah, tariqah, aqiqah, magrifah), each the reader aware of his errors. The book is divided divided in 10 substations. in 3 chapters explaining the first 3 stations of the Fear, knowledge and love are the forces pushing spiritual progression (shariah, tariqah, aqiqah) with toward the path, but is humility (tawasu, synonym numerous quotes of aphorisms of Yasawi and of of surrender − islam) the virtue that, by consisting in other great sheikhs. Two manuscripts are today awareness of the inferior human position to Allah, preserved: in Uppsala and Tashkent. (Danishmand allows the progression along the path. So, the text XII AD) continues analyzing the central role of humility in Similar content is found in 2 other later ripening the fruits of the 40 substations, now listed manuscripts stored in the ACD library of under different names and in different order: 10 Tashkent: the “Risala dar tarjima-i Ahmad ‘stages’ (magrifah), 10 ‘luminaries’ (shariah), 10 Yassawi” (Interpretation of Ahmed Yasawi) by ‘ways’ (tariqah) and 10 ‘qualities’ (aqiqah). Imam Husamiddin Sighnaki (+1311), mainly of Along the text are praised the names of Allah, hagiographic character (Sighnoqi XIII AD); and the Gabriel the archangel, Adam, 7 biblical prophets, of “Hadiqat al-arifin” (The Garden of the Saints closer Muhammad and Ali. Specific eulogies to humility to God) of Is’haq Ata, a 14th century descendant, are selected from sentences of 16 different Sufi which provides precious information about the sheikhs44. Of Ahmed Yasawi are quoted 3 sentences initiation rites and devotional practices of the order and 40 verses similar by poetic style and content to (İs’haq Ata XIV AD). the ones of the Divan-i Hikmet. The Jawahir al-abrar min amvaj al-bihar (Gems of the pious believers) and other manuscripts At 14 I suffered, I humbled my pride erasing it in the sand, of Ahmad Hazini, a XVI century Tadjik poet and I spoke the zikr ‘hu’, suffering by exhaustion. sheikh of the Yasawiyya order, give information I gave everything, everything dear I had. After that I skyrocketed, my friends. about the history, rules and spiritual techniques of the order, accompanied with frequent quotes of The text ends with the description of the life Yasawi verses. The Hazini’s manuscripts are stored of the dervish, made of external suffering and of in Istanbul, Berlin and Paris libraries (Hazini XVI). internal bliss. Important sources are also two works from Risala dar adaby Tariqat masters of the Nashbandiyya: the Rashahat-i ain al- It is a manuscript of around 2500 words including Rayat, a XVI hagiographic compilation concerning 6 explicit long quotations of Yasawi sayings, of the Yasawi spiritual affiliation; and theLamahat min which few copies are preserved in Tashkent (Yasawi nafahat al-quds of Alim Shaykh Azızan (+1632) Risala; Tosun 2016). The text, more discursive than who, even if representing a rival order, praises the the Pakirnama, clarifies some important topics of the theological and juridical skills of some sheikhs of spiritual training: the main characters of the path45, the Baqirghani lineage (Zarcone 2003, p. 776). the 6 virtues of the mentor, the importance of love 3.3.2 – Yasawi’s spiritual system and passion46, and the supreme ecstatic knowledge By referring to the works of Yasawi and of of Magrifah. It ends with a mysterious poem: his followers it is possible to sort out the doctrine and practice originally taught by the saint. Yasawi Paradise is gratitude to the mothers, teaches a path of disciplined mysticism and final It is at the mothers’ feet. holiness of which the general lines are in accord with If you want the Allah merci the teachings of all Sufi schools. But he introduces Do what the mother would be pleased with. some original innovations concerning the advanced

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Traditional accounts on the Yasawiyya spiritual accompanied by metaphors and verses disseminated training in the text, stimulates imagination and emotional The Yasawiyya training is basically similar to lifts. the one of all the Sufi orders, but here some elements Divan-i Hikmet is definitely expressed in a are particularly emphasized. language even higher, not only on the account The murid (disciple), as soon as he enters of its poetic form but by being spoken from an the tariqah, must follow very severe rules of uninterrupted ecstatic state of mind. The Hikmet perseverance and of total submission to the master. are the pearls of a saint already underground, with Hazini lists them as 10 in number (Hazini XVI AD: self and body turned into earth and the soul totally p. 120). Special instructions are given about daily freed above the senses. They seem spoken from habits, gestures, body positions, vocal tones and the highest attainment of the path, the marifah, in prayers in the context of different situations and mystical union with God, with syllabic rhythms and actions (Koprulu 2006: p. 97-99). rhymes as phonetic angels of the divine attainment. Zuhhd (ascetism) and striving are basic practices They are the songs of a pure soul at the verge of of the true Sufi, in particular fasting. “If voluntary death. fasting is done for three days, dust and darkness will In spite of the fact that Sufi doctrines have be lifted from the inner self; if done for five days, some points of conflict with orthodox Islam, the the divine secrets (mughayyabat) of the jinns and Yasawi words from the underground cell are a the good spirits will be subdued, i.e. made obedient; spiritual expression rising above contrasts. This if done for six days, the springs of the heart’s seas is due to the power of the chillakhona pulpit, the will open and begin to flow; if done for nine days, dramatic importance of the topic and the straightness it results in the revealing of hearts (qulub) and the of the words49. Prayer is secret and all possible uncovering of tombs (qubur)” (Hazini XVI AD: p. points of misunderstanding and doctrinal friction 58-60). are carefully discarted or kept secret. No pearls to Dhikr is the main devotional practice in all Sufi the fool. orders, consisting of intimations of holy names based on consciousness of breath (every breath If you are a lover, seek love day and night: of the dervish is equivalent to the last breath) and worship, wake at night and never rest. accompanied by body movements. Yasawiyyas If you are a sage, reveal not your knowledge to the fool: were famous for their use of loud dhikr47, of which the real dervish is he who prays in secret (H43) Ahmed is said to have introduced a secret form called dhikr-i arra or dhikr-i minshary (‘dhikr of It is in that way, by keeping secrecy, that high the saw’ on the account of the rhythmic repetition men and messages can rise everywhere and spread of the guttural utterance ‘ha’ or ‘hay’) intended for undisturbed in space and time. obtaining an ecstatic withdrawal from senses and for unlocking the access to esoteric universes. Because 4 – Divan-i Hikmet that, this dikhr was also called khatm khajagan, ‘seal of the masters’. During its performance the use of Of the legendary 99000 verses only few loud sounds (ha-ha, hay-hay) was superposing and thousands arrived to us, at first transmitted orally and eventually merging with the out-breath and in that then collected in different versions, as manuscripts way driving to silent dikhr. Several kinds of dikhr or printed editions, under the title of Divan-i Hikmet were in use and several different ways to perform (Book of Wisdom). The earliest manuscripts are them48. lost; the oldest version that arrived to us is dated Khalvat (spiritual retreat) of the Yasawiyya order to 1684 AD and kept in an Istanbul library; the are two: canonical (shariah k.) and mystical (tariqah others are deposited in various archives and private k.). The canonical is preliminary and consists of collections. repentance and purification. The mystical became 4.1 – Manuscripts, editions, translations famous for its intense 40 days training: the waking The existing manuscripts and editions of the hours were filled with dhkr and hikmet reciting and Divan-i Hikmet show deep similarities together the resting time focused on dreams to be interpreted with significant differences. All versions present (Hazini XVI: p. 51-56). a text written in Arabic alphabet and spoken in Divan-i Hikmet Turkic-Chagatai language with Kipchak dialect, The language of the doctrinal works quoted which is the original language spoken by Ahmed above is not just prose: it is rather prose poetry and, Yasawi50; but each of them is the result of collections

128 Хабаршы. Тарих сериясы. №2 (89). 2018 Renato Sala assembled in different times by different authors A total of 14 manuscripts exist, dated between and composed by a different number of poems, the XVI and XVIII AD and preserved in different called and numbered as hikmet and parted in stanzas libraries (Istanbul, , Tashkent, Almaty, and verses. Many poems appear identical in more Cairo, St. Petersburg, Cambridge, Paris, Berlin); than one version but also show particularities and and several lithographic editions have been printed linguistic and chronological anomalies, suggesting during the XIX-XX AD in Kazan, Tashkent, the existence of a lost common source transformed Bukhara and Istanbul. by subsequent omissions and interpolations. The oldest manuscript arrived to us is the The Turkic Chagatai language of the text is Istanbul manuscript, with 69 hikmet (poems), among the oldest examples of Turkic dialect and compiled in 1684 AD and kept at the Istanbul Vafik- the second-oldest example of Islamic Turkic poetic Pasha library (Fig. 8). The Turkestan manuscript composition51. (XVII AD) with 49 hikmet could be a shortened version of it (see section 4.2). Other apparently important but still inaccessible manuscripts are: the manuscript recently discovered in the Kokshetau library (of which is suspected an even earlier date of XVI AD)52; and some manuscripts of the Almaty library (XVI-XIX AD), which are said to include a XIX AD version of 119 hikmet53. Printed editions are relatively recent. The first has been published in Kazan in 1878 with 67 hikmet, and the most complete with 149 hikmet always in Kazan in 1904 (Fig. 9). As a whole, the existing versions of the Divan-i Hikmet include from 49 to 149 hikmet, each hikmet averaging 10 stanzas made of quatrains (4 verses, 4 beys), and ending with one mujanat (prayer, psalm) of 50-70 couplets (mesra). Most of the prosody consists of long verses in 7 or 10 syllables metric patterns that, together with with rhymes and Figure 8 (on the left) – Divan-i Hikmet, Istanbul manuscript: title page (freely distributed on the internet). repetitions, confer to the poems a special rhythm as if they were recited as songs54. Translations of the Divan-i Hikmet in modern languages are rare: few in Turkish and Arabic, very rare in Uzbek, Kazakh, Russian an English languages. In fact the Yasawi’s words, in spite of their spiritual and historical importance, are by now still poorly accessible to the western world. Main object of translations have been the 69 hikmet of the oldest Istanbul manuscript (1684 AD): in modern Turkic in 1897; 7 hikmet from the same manuscript into Russian by N.S. Lykoshin (1860- 1922) at the end of XIX century; the entire 69 hikmet into Kazakh language by M. Zharmukhamed-uli and al. in 1993 (Yasawi 1993). The Turkestan manuscript (49 hikmet, XVII AD), basically a shortened version of the Istanbul manuscript, has been translated in English language by Tek-Esin in 1994 (Yasawi 1994). The Kazan edition (149 hikmet, 1904) has been translated in Kazakh by A. Ibatov et al. and in Russian by N. Sagandykov in 2000 (Yasawi 2000). Figure 9 (on the right) – Divan-i Hikmet, Kazan edition: During the last 20 years the growing interest in Hikmet 1 (from Yasawi 1998a). Ahmed Yasawi words favored in Uzbekistan and

ISSN 1563-0269 Journal of history. №2 (89). 2018 129 Ahmed Yasawi: life, words and significance in the kazakh culture in lesser extent also in Kazakhstan the reediting of underline that dying is a difficult threshold requiring former translations as well as the publishing of new some spiritual preconditions. In order to dispel the popular translations from undeclared sources55. mental biases and resistances that hinder a firm 4.2 – The Turkestan manuscript consciousness of such unavoidable event, Yasawi is Here below are analyzed the structure and using firing words, rhymes and repeated sentences contents of the Tek-Esin English translation of the that remember the enchanting obsessive sounds of Turkestan manuscript, ending with the quotation the kobyz played by Korkut-Ata in exorcising death, of few most significant verses. The English text is or the unending repetitions of the Jesus name of the quite poor but represents the only existing direct Orthodox monks. translation from Turkic into an European language. The text emphasizes as spiritual precondition The manuscript has been found in Turkestan and the primary importance of compassion for poor brought to Istanbul by the turkologist Kemal Eraslan and orphans, of meditation on death, of dispassion in 1954. It consists of a selection of 49 poems that are for mundane life, of love and annihilation in God, found identical in other longer versions (i.e. in the and the universal significance of his underground Istanbul manuscript of 1684)56 and approximately retreat. From down there, Yasawi reveals that at dated to the XVII AD. All together the 49 poems the verge of death the only sustainable mental state count 424 stanzas of 4 verses (quatrain), i.e. a total is a total detachment from sensuous objects and of 1688 verses. The hikmet are followed by one representations (which sounds obvious) and a level munajat (prayer) titled “Prayer to God Almightily, of faith developed to the point of totally transforming fulfiller of all our desires”, made of 48 couplets the mental self into an impersonal timeless radiation where Ahmed asks God to bless the spiritual value of love and wisdom. and inspiring power of his hikmet. Yasawi expresses a high esteem of his own The content of the poems doesn’t leave doubts verses: he calls them “orders from god” carrying about the fact that they were spoken from an the “meaning of the Quran” (H1, Mujanat); and underground cell of self-immurement. designates their collection as Daftar-i Sani-i, Ahmed Yasawi, when reciting the Hikmet i.e. ‘Second Book’ (H13), reserving the title of from the underground cell where he retired to ‘First Book’ for the Quran. His Sufi Central Asian death, sends to all humanity an ultimate message followers did the same and extended that praise to in an extremely simple and sharp language. The the Yasawi’s spiritual hierarchy whom considered verses are not concerned with doctrinal but with second only to Muhammad, and to his tomb in phenomenological issues. They point out the Turkestan which is still considered a main evident fact that everyone tends to keep veiled in a destination, second only to Mecca57. childish way: the future death of each of us; and they

DIVAN-I HIKMET

Hikmet 1 starts exposing the intent of the poems and proceeds recommending compassionate love for orphans and poor, which will constitute a main theme all along the book.

Thanking God I express myself with hikmet. I scattered gems and pearls to students here. Having severely ascetic discipline, I began upon the Second Book here (H1)

Poor and orphans are known to the Prophet. That night He ascended and saw the revelation, returning, descending, He inquired for poor and orphans. Following after the poor, here I have come (H1)

I came to the door of love when my lord opened. He turned me into earth, He said “Be ready”. He pressed down my neck: arrows of blame struck me like rain, I picked an arrowhead and pierced my heart (H1)

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Hikmet 2-7 (and also H22, H36 and H4758) recall the Ahmed’s spiritual curriculum from birth to the underground retirement, year by year from the age of 1 to the age of 63, with precious information about his reference masters and the spiritual progression across the stations of the path (tariqah). His sources are the Quran, the Hadith and the words of few saints. He prizes the most Allah and Muhammad (Master of prayer), and some mythical sages, possibly of Zoroastrian origin, like Pir-i Mugan (the Elder of the Magians, the one who distributes love) who guards from evil, and the mythical immortal Khizir Baba (Khidr59), the servant of god who initiates the saints. He quotes with veneration Moses and, most significant, five Sufi saints:Majnun , the ‘demented one’, a legendary ascetic of the VII century AD who, starting as passionate lover of a girl called Layla, converted into pure love and spent the rest of his life in wildness among animals; Adham (+780), a very rich sultan who, like Buddha, renounced to everything and embraced the poorest life; al-Bistami (+874), a formerly Zoroastrian priest who became an ecstatic Sufi wanderer preaching the annihilation of the self as precondition of the highest mystical attainment; Ash-Shibli (+946), a Sufi master who taught senses dispassion and techniques of ecstatic breath; Mansur al- Hallaj (executed in 992), the ‘martyr of love’ who got beheaded because manifested his spiritual attainments by exclaiming ‘I am the truth’. He recognizes as master Arystanbab and places him in the highest heaven, and apparently quotes his Bukharan tutor Yusuf Hamadani as “my great teacher”. The metaphors of wine and of date or persimmon seeds point to ecstatic initiations, the metaphor of fire to physical and psychical transmutations, the metaphor of the dew or of the Mecca’s sacred spring (Zemzem) to the pure mind that can afford to go underground.

At seven my Arslan Baba sought and found me, and covered under veils all secrets he noticed: “Thanks God I saw” he said, and kissed my forehead, hence I went underground at 63 (H2)

At forty-three I looked for God and sobbed, I shed tears, and tears turned to morning dew. Wandering in deserts I became a madman. My exalted mentor, I came and took refuge in you. At forty-four, in the bazaar of love, holding my collar I went crying in a rose-garden: like Mansur I lost my head in the gallows of love. My exalted mentor, I came and took refuge in you (H5)

At forty-nine your love rained over me, and I burned: Like Manjun I renounced and fled from kith and kin and suffered disasters with acceptance. My exalted mentor, I came and took refuge in you (H5)

I wish to burn like lovers, turn to ashes (H7)

Soil is over my head, me and my body are earth. My soul is excited by the communion with God. I burned and could never return above, I turned to morning dew and entered underground (H7)

Like Shibli, I whirled and relinquished life, Intoxicated I restrained and fled from people, I turned into Zemzem and entered underground (H7)

Hikmet 8-17 provide details about the ecstatic state of Ahmed in his underground cell, and intimations about dispassion and spiritual love.

One must absorb my words as gems and pearls; I explained how things are and gave it to those in love (H9)

The roads of tariqah are difficult, many in love turn to dust on them. Whoever enters the path of love is in trouble, I went around asking the Enlightened for the road (H10)

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The world is garbage: desiring and chasing, we wander like dogs (H12)

Love is king: the lover is a poor being and keeps quiet (H14)

Hikmet 18-27 remember the approach of death, and address to Allah and Muhammad praises, prayers and words of self- criticism (malamat) and repentance (tawba).

When my life comes to an end, what shall I do, oh God? When the Angel of Death comes, what shall I do, oh God? (H18)

The love for Muhammad echoes in my head, I love the court of grace of Muhammad (H20)

At fifty I heard a voice saying “Dying is easy on condition that the light of faith is in you. If tomorrow you go to meet him, He will receive you”. Khoja Ahmad heard and read it, and went under earth (H22)

Hikmet 28-36 are addressed to friends and devotees, criticizing the rotten dervishes and corrupted sheikhs who…

having ignored devotion and worship, having ruined their natures, having read as blessings the dreams of an obvious sleep, in the Judgment Day will try to make up their faces (H33)

Hikmet 37-44 praise the life and merits of the right dervishes, and underline the importance of the spiritual transmission.

Harmonizing the inner and outer world, happy are the dervishes. Since the time of the prophet there have been dervishes (H37)

Real dervishes choose mountains and deserts to dwell (H43)

When the world comes to an end the wise will go and people will set about eating each other (H44)

The last poems of the book (H45-49) are dedicated to the lovers, the wise (gnostics), the poor, the ones who can face Azrail (Angel of Death) and cross the hair-narrow Sirat bridge that brings to heaven (Jannah).

With his power my God gave an order: “No living creature will remain on earth or sky”; and for the world He created Azrail, Angel of Death (H46)

Who gets up early morning will remember death And fly to the sky for fear, early in the morning. Only the lovers know the taste of the early morning: they see the God presence, early in the morning (H48)

My head is on the pillow, I am about to lose this place, my body will go and lie in the tomb… I didn’t know that I would go from this world I didn’t know that I would lie in a tomb (H49)

The concluding Psalm (Mujanat) praises the importance of the hikmet themselves.

My hikmet are orders from God; read and understand: that is the meaning of Quran

My hikmet are as the thrill of the lover, his tears will wash him before the prayer

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Without a sage setting his trap on the pass, the unwise speaks deceit and his task is forgery

My hikmet are sweet as sugar and honey, They are irreplaceable among words

Do not read my hikmet to one free of pain, do not sell priceless gems to those who ignore them (Mujanat)

Explanation from sensuous pleasures, is ranged among the first steps of the Sufi mystic path. 1 This first chapter describes the general characters of the Mysticism and asceticism don’t characterize mainstream Kazakh spirituality. The reader can find more detailed and pre- Islam. Monasticism shares only external similarities with Sufi cise reports on the subject in the works of Kazakh ethnogra- circles and is totally forbidden by the Quran. phers. See: Konuratbaev 1987, 1991. 7 At the exception of the Naqshbandiyya order that, strictly 2 In Turkic and Kazakh languages ata means father, old Sunni oriented, traces its lineage to the first caliph Abu Bakr, man, male ancestor, and ana means mother, old woman, female all the Sufi orders trace their lineage silsila( ) to Ali, prophet’s ancestor. cousin and son-in-law and fourth caliph, and a few, like the 3 When asked how she could arrive to transform in few Central Asian Kubrawiyya, through Ali to the prophet Muham- years such place into a holy site, Bifatima answered: “It has mad. In spite of the central reference to Ali, most of the Sufi been very simple, the entire world is holy”. orders are adherent of and only few, like the Yas- 4 Meditation on death holds a central place in all religions awiyya, Kubrawiyya and their offsprings, fall within the ambit and initiation rites. Any religion resides on the pretension of of Shia Islam. giving a meaning to both life and death and even of making 8 In the region the Naqshbandiyya is the only Sufi sect death pleasurable and desirable. Apparently such centralized re- based on non-hereditary succession and, together with the ligious service became compulsory during I millennium BC in Suhrawardiyya, the only one Sunni-oriented. It is also the larg- the context of crowded urban aggregations that, deprived of the est with wide international diffusion, most engaged politically previous natural scenarios, required the artificial building of an and most exposed to branching, schisms and mergers. During indelible civil self-consciousness. the XIX AD it ended up absorbing the members of the other In Hinduism death is omnipresent but its inevitability is two Central Asian sects (Zarcone 2003, pp. 760-768). Today softened by faith in cycles of meritorious reincarnations. Its im- it is still operative in India, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Daghestan, pact is also filtered in Christianity where not your individual W-China and N-Tibet. death stays at the center of scriptures and iconic representations 9 Sufi orders that diffused to Central Asia from Iran and but the death of a redeemer or a collective doomsday. In Bud- India have been the Suhrawardiyya originated in Iran from Abu dhism death is faced directly and considered, together with suf- ‘n-Najib as-Suhrawardi (Iran, 1097-1168), and its Indian deriv- fering and aging, the angel of liberation, which is accomplished ative Ishqiyya (or Shattariyya) from Abdullah (Bihar, through dispassion for worldly affairs and brings to ultimate +1472). knowledge. It plays a most important role in the Quran and is 10 The popular and tolerant character of Sufism created ex- absolutely basic in Sufism where the remembrance of death is cellent conditions for the blending of Islam with local shamanic the only messenger driving to its solution: the remembrance of practices and religions (Melikoff 1996). God. 11 The most important among modern active Sufi orders Initiation rites of young males through the world (in primi- are: Ba Alawiyya, Bektashi, Chishti, Khalwati, Kubraviyya, tive tribes, Old Egypt, Mithraic cults, Templars, Masons, etc) Naqshbandi, Nimatullahi, Oveyssi, Qadria Noshahia, Qa- most often include the terrifying performance of a ritual death diria Boutshishia, Qadiriyyah, , Sarwari Qadiri, intended for dispelling fear of the real death and supporting ‘re- Shadhliyya, Shattariya and Suhrawardiyya (Wikipedia, His- birth’ in a wider state of consciousness. tory of Sufism). 5 A resurgence of Tengrism was documented in the Gorno- 12 The term tariqah can mean 3 different objects: a Sufi Altai region at the beginning of the XX century, in the form of spiritual lodge (tekke) or school (medresa); the Sufi spiritual a syncretistic phenomenon called Burkhanism, combining ele- training in general; or, more specifically, just the second of its ments of ancient pre-Shamanist, Shamanist, Lamaist and Ortho- 4 stations when the novice consciously adheres to the mystic dox Christian beliefs. It was suppressed by the Soviet regime community by entering an order and accepting a mentor. for fear of its potential nationalistic propaganda among Siberian 13 Sufi schools can be distinguished on the basis of their Turks. emphasis on different stations of the training. ‘Sober Sufis’ are 6 Mysticism is defined as the belief that direct knowledge dervishes observing the courtesy (adab) demanded by the Lord- of God, the ultimate reality, can be attained through subjective servant relationship, so that they emphasize the rationality of direct experience. A mystic is someone devoted to such person- the first shariah station, becoming dominant in jurisprudence. al transformation. Asceticism (zuhd), consisting in abstinence ‘Drunken Sufis’ are dervishes who emphasize the ecstatic at-

ISSN 1563-0269 Journal of history. №2 (89). 2018 133 Ahmed Yasawi: life, words and significance in the kazakh culture tainments (mast, ‘drunkness’) of the last 2-3-4 stations of the madic populations of Transoxiana and, like the Genghis Khan’s path, becoming dominant in . descendants, are treated as nobility. 14 ‘s.w.a.’ and ‘a.s.’ are abridged versions of the honorific 26 The popular custom of applying the title Bab in front of formulas sallallahu alayhi wa salaam (God’s bliss and peace be the name of Sufi saints of Central Asia appeared during these with Him’) and ‘as-samad (‘perfect one’), postponed respec- early times of the religious spread (see note 29). tively to the names of the prophets and of Allah. 27 About the origins and history of the Khoja, see: Virani 15 Movements accompanying the spiritual training normal- 2007. About the Khoja of Kazakhstan, see: Muminov 1998; De ly consist in a dance mimicking the dance of the crane (turnalar Weese 1999, p. 507-530 semai), made of beating wings, vertical jumps and bending- 28 The most legendary accounts of the life of Yasawi are the whirling body movements. The involvement of the body in compilations of legends of the Bektakshi tradition (XVI AD), in devotional practices is a distinguishing character not only of particular the Velayetname-i Hajji Bektash Veli (The saintly ex- Sufism but more in general of Islam and has become the most ploits of Hacı Bektaş Veli) [ (1209-1271) was popular attribute of the Sufi training itself. a Yasawi disciple founder of the Bektakshi order (see section 16 Jahri, when collective, ends up sounding quite similar to 3.2)] and its summary provided in (Koprulu 2006, p. 20-57). Lamaist recitations. The Jawahir al-abrar of Hazini (XVI AD) is nearer to reality 17 (‘listening’) is called the hearing of a sound that (see section 3.3.1). Scientifically founded historical accounts is not being played, a kind of auditory hallucination leading to are the works of DeWeese (2000), the rich but Turkish centered an exalted state of mind. When accompanied by spontaneous account of Koprulu (1890-1966) (Koprulu 2006, p. 57-89) and movements it is called raqs-i sama (‘movements rising from the short descriptions of Baitenova (2012) and Tosun (2015). listening’). 29 Khoja Ahmed Yasawi means ‘Khoja Highly-praised of 18 Besides the circulation of ideas, the hagiographies of Sufi Yasi’. Hazrat, which in Arabic means ‘presence’, is an honorif- saints witness also cases of conversion or deep influences from ic title applied to high clergy with the meaning of ‘His holiness’. Zoroastrism (al-Bistami, Mansur Hallaj, Arystanbab), Christi- Synonyms are Pir (‘saint’), Shaikh (‘guide, mentor, master’) anity (Kharki) and Hinduism (Habash Suhawardi). Khwaja (‘master’) and Bab (‘father’, ‘sir’, ‘gate’), all marks 19 The manuscript of the Al-Biruni translation was found of respect commonly applied to Sufi masters. The title Mahdi in the early 1920-ies in the Köprülü Library of Istanbul by L. (‘rightly-guided’) was at first given to knowledgeable persons Massignon (Massignon 1922) and then acquired messianic significance.Ibn means ‘son of’, al 20The term hadith (‘traditions’) refers to any of the various means ‘the’ or ‘of the’. traditional records of words, actions and habits of the Prophet 30 “The tradition that Yasavi was born in Sayram is first at- Mohammad during his lifetime. tested in the Ottoman Turkish Javahir al-abrar of Hazini from 21 Controversies existed between the Naqshbandiyya and the late 16th century…but earlier sources identify the town of the other Sufi orders, being that the first is the only school Yasï/Turkistan as Yasavi’s birthplace.” (DeWeese 1999, note tracing its relation to Muhammad not through Ali but through 25) Abu Bakr. In particular, in spite of their close connections, 31 The Hanafi is the majoritarian and relatively most flex- the Naqshbandiyya had occasional disputes with the Yasawi- ible of the 4 fiqh schools of Islam, allowing analogical interpre- yyas, blamed for their loose adherence to the Quran words tation of ambiguous passages of Quran and Hadith. About the (against the literal interpretation of the Nashbandiyya), for history of the Hanafites in Central Asia see: Muminov 1999. their devotional practices favoring the loud dikhr (against the 32 Another version of the Yasawi formation is given by the silent dhrk of the Naqshbandiyya) and as a whole for their XVI century poet Hazini (see below section 3.3.1) who states Shia ambit. that in Bukhara Yasawi was student of the Persian Sufi Abu 22 Concerning the spread of Islam and Sufism in Central al-Najib Surahwardi (1097-1168), founder of Surahwardiyya Asia. See: Deom 2009; De Weese 2012. order, Sunni oriented like the Naqshbandiya. 23 The Mubayyidites (‘wearers of white’) were among the 33 Yasawi is in Turkestan remembered as developer water most radical of the early heterodox Islamic movements of Cen- management techniques and karez, which in Central Asia have tral Asia, grouped around a master claiming to be the reincarna- always been specialized tasks of Khoja clans (Sala 2016). tion of Abraham, Jesus and Muhammad all together. Defeated 34 Chilla-khona in Arabic means ’forty (days) retreat’. The in 779 AD in Transoxiana, they moved north of the Syrdarya tradition of retiring in a crypt or cave for meditation or for final and converted the Qarluq tribes before disappearing in XII AD self-immurement was common practice among the Islamized (Deom 2009, p. 102). Turkic saints of South Kazakhstan. Besides Ahmed Yasawi, an- 24 Their name comes from khwaja, a Persian honorific title other reported case of self-immurement is the one of Sighnaq- that the tribe members started receiving in during the Ata, a Sufi master contemporary with Yasawi of whom chilla- XIII AD. kona and mausoleum are located in the immediate surroundings 25 The politico-military orientation of the Khoja tribes of of the medieval town of Signak, on the Middle Syrdarya 150 Central Asia endured during subsequent times. In Late Middle km west of Turkestan. Cave and collective prayer- Ages the Khoja became rulers of holy sites and waterworks, halls are quite numerous in the calcareous cliffs of Mangyshlak both activities being freed from taxation; under the Soviet em- (West Kazakhstan) where they developed as analogues of un- pire they lost past privileges but, quickly adapting to the new re- derground individual cells. gime, ruled kolkhozes and sofkhozes; after perestroika they re- 35 Here and in following similar cases, H47 plays as covered controlling positions in managing spiritual shrines and abridged formula for referring to Hikmet 47 of the Turkestan pilgrimages. The descent, history and character of the Khoja manuscript. are shared by another Central Asian tribe, the Sunak. Still today 36 The most outstanding of his direct disciples was Hakim these two tribes maintain a privileged position among the no- Suleiman Baqirghani (+1186), Sufi sheikh and author of the

134 Хабаршы. Тарих сериясы. №2 (89). 2018 Renato Sala treatise Bakırgan Kitabı, who spread the Yasawiyya school to seed from which originated the majestic primeval walnut forest Khorezm and the Caspian shores, driven to that place by sit- surrounding the village. ting passively on a camel (from which his surname Baqirghani, 42 Some scholars attribute to Yasawi also another similar ‘brayer’). He is spoken as the father of Aisha Bibi, a 16 years doctrinal work, the Maqāmāt-i Arba’in (‘Forty Stations’), of beauty, unlucky lover of the Karakhanid governor of Taraz who which the only existing manuscript is preserved in the Public converted to Islam and dedicated to the dead fiancee a most Library of Kutahya (W-Turkey) and is generally attributed to beautiful mausoleum. Danishmand preached in Otrar and is the the famous Sufi mystic and poet Abū-Sa’īd Abul-Khayr (Kho- author of the Mir’at al-qulub (see below). rasan, 967-1049). It consists of a short description of the four 37 It is said that once Ahmed Yasawi summoned his dis- stations of the path (shariah, Sufi order, knowledge, divine ciples in a yurt (circular tent) and told them to shoot an arrow truth) each divided in 10 substations, representing as a whole through the round hole of the roof (shanrak) and go to spread one of the finest Sufi accounts of the maqamat. Sufism as shepherds in the place where the arrow would land. 43 ‘Nasabnama’ are numerous, they vary according to The arrow of Danishmand reached the Otrar oasis and the one Khoja clans claiming descent from the saint and his ancestors of Shopan-Ata the Mangyshlak peninsula. Today Mangyshlak through a brother or daughter lineage. The oldest reliable ver- and the neighboring Ustyurt plateau are hosting a large concen- sion is included in the ‘Hadiqat al-arifin’ of Ishaq Khwaja ibn tration of mausoleums of Sufi saints of the Shopan-Ata spiritual Ismail Ata (see under) dated to the XIV AD (DeWeese 1999, lineage, remembered and honored on the account and their edu- p.510; DeWeese and Muminov 2013, p.55). Some versions cational, thaumaturgic and politico-military skills. speak even about a Yasawi’s son, Ibrahim, who was murdered 38 The history of the diffusion of the Yasawi lineage to Ana- in young age, and a daughter, Gevher Khushnas, who continued tolia is provided by the Turkish historian Evliya Chelebi (1611- the lineage. It is also described the way Yasawi was earning his 1682) (Evilya Chelebi XVII AD) who, like many Turkish Sufis life by making wooden spoons and carrying them to the market and intellectuals, pretends to be himself a descendant of Ahmed with an ox: “Whenever someone bought a spoon, he would put Yasawi. the money into the saddlebag. When someone did not pay for 39 The existing reconstructions of the Yasawiyya lineage the spoon, the ox would follow that person wherever he went are quite contradictory and debatable. On the basis of Tosun until he would pay the money. At night, the ox would return N. (2015), between the XII and early XV AD Yasawi succes- home.” (Tosun 2015, p. 99) sors (underlined are the most famous for their teachings and 44 Among the names of these 16 sheiks, 3 are just honor- literary works) have been sheikhs of the Mansur Ata and Baq- ific titles or names that cannot be identified, and 4 refer to Sufi irghani (Hakim Ata) lineages [Zengi Ata; Hasan, Seyyid Ata, saints who lived after Yasawi, evidencing the fact that our Pa- Sadr Ata and Badr Ata (XIII); Elemin Baba; Ali and Menduk kirnama text comes from a compilation of Yasawi teachings Sheikh], of the Danishmand lineage [Suzuk Ata, Ibrahim, Is- that not only followed his death but had also been enriched by mail and Ishaq Ata], and other Central Asian sheikhs like Husa- subsequent inclusions. The other 9 names include few person- maddin Sighnaqi +1311, Hazret Besir +1463, Şerîf Buzurgvâr ages who have been distrusted or even executed on the account +1556. During the XV AD the order divided in 2 branches, and of their nonconformist behavior, like ab-Din Haydar and Man- then again in several branches, which favored its geographical sur Hallaj. The Persian Sufi saint ab-Din Haydar (+1221) spread in Turkic speaking regions as well as the merging with became notorious for promoting during the spiritual training, other orders: the first branch (Ikaniyya) was started in Tash- besides self-mortification, the use of cannabis in order to obtain kent by Sheikh Kamal İkani [Seyyid Ahmed, Sheikh Uveys, a state of “restfull joy”. His irreverence was criticized and his Abdulvasi and Abdulmuhaymin]; the second branch by Hadim disciples called ‘low life’, but anyhow the habit became popular Sheikh [Kaşgarî Buhari, Süleyman Gaznavi, Seyyid Mansur and the use of the herb migrated all over the Middle East under Belhi +1557, Ahmad Hazini, Alim Sheikh Azizan +1633, Serif the name of ‘Haydar wine’. Mansur Hallaj, a Persian mystic of Buhari +1697, Muhammed Buhari +1801, Omer Isan]. At the Zoroastrian descent, left his Sufi order for becoming a lay mys- turn of the XX AD the Yasawiyya order completely disappears tic and spreading mysticism among the masses. He proclaimed from Central Asia, absorbed by the Naqshbandiyya, but Yasawi that there were nothing wrapped in his turban but God, that ‘the hikmet are still recited today at the door of his tomb and in Ka- important Kaaba is placed in the heart’, and finally was decapi- zakh and Kyrgyz yurtae, and the ‘dhkr of the saw’ is still prac- tated by saying the outrageous utterance ‘I am the truth’ (al- ticed by two offspring sects (Lachi and Hairi-Shan) active in the Haqq, which is also one of the 99 names of Allah). His name Fergana valley. Alternative versions of the linage are described appears also among the 5 Sufi saints quoted in the Divan-i Hik- by Koprulu (2006) and Trimingham (1971) (Fig. 7). met: “…like Mansur I lost my head in the gallows of love” (H5). 40 An account of the early rules and historical development 45 The path is here described by a list of 6 disciplinary rules of the Yasawiyya school can be found in (Muminov 1993). (general virtues, lassos for the student, duties to God, sacred See also the works of the XVI century Sufi poet Ahmad Hazini scriptures, virtuous actions toward guests, behavioral rules to- (Hazini XVI AD). wards masters and elders), each made of 6 qualities. 41 ‘Hairy Shan’ is the only Sufi sect admitting women in the 46 The text includes a beautiful passage describing the mys- practice of collective dihkr, in accordance with the Yasawi mir- tic relation between the lover and the beloved: “When Allah acle where cotton and fire were put together without interacting created Love, He turned to him: ‘Oh, Love, settle on the great (Koprulu 2006, p. 24). It has a lodge in the Arslanbob village at Arsha (above the seven layers of heaven)’. But Love did not the NE piedmonts of the Fergana valley where it rules two mau- agree. Then he was offered kursi (the legs of the throne): he did soleums: one dedicated to the founder of the sect and the other not agree to this place either. Then a benevolent voice sound- to Arslanbab (a duplicate of his mausoleum in Otrar). Here is ed: ‘Oh, Love! Why don’t you settle on these makam? (4 steps also spoken a variant of the legend of the fruit seed given to Ar- of the disciplinary training)’. And Love prayed: ‘Oh, Creator slanbab by the prophet: in this case not a date is given but a nut and Mentor of 18 thousand worlds! In order Love settles on

ISSN 1563-0269 Journal of history. №2 (89). 2018 135 Ahmed Yasawi: life, words and significance in the kazakh culture these makam, the Seekers need an object to look for (matlub): between 4 personages (king, vizier, sage, dervish), each repre- the Lover needs the Beloved (ma’shuk) as Zulaikha longed for senting an abstract principle (justice, fortune, wisdom, man’s Yusuf (the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob), as Khadija for Mu- last end). The text is composed in masnavi style, made of 6645 hammad – sallallahu alayhi wa sallam – ; the disciple (murid) rhyming couplets of prosodic 11-syllables lines. (Yusuf 1070). needs the mentor (pir); the dervish needs the master”. Allah 52 The Kokshetau manuscript is written on the both sides said: “Allah loves them, they love Allah’ ”. of 90 pages made of Bukhara paper. It has been found in 2007 47 ‘Loud’ in Arabic is said jahri, from which comes Jahri- in the storages of the Kokshetau museum, where ended up after yya, another name of the Yasawiyya order (Tosun 2015). perestroika following a campaign of popular donations. 48 Besides the dikhr of the saw, another most simple loud 53 The referred collection of manuscripts of the National dhkr was the dhikr-i kebûter (‘dhkr of the dove’) performed by Library of Almaty consists of 1400 pages of works attributed pronouncing ‘Hu, Hu’. Another dikhr was just uttering the name to Ahmed Yasawi, Bakyrgani and Danishmand, among which a Allah. 412 pages version of the Divan-i Hikmet (1834), a 23 pages ver- Remarkable was the practice of a complex sixfold dikhr sion of the Pakyrnama, and a 89 pages version of the Mirat-ul system. In an anonymous Chagatai Turkic book titled Risale-i kulub (XVI AD) (National Library of Almaty 2002) . Zikr-i Hazret-i Sultân al-Arifin (Interpretation of the Dikhr of 54 Hazini at the start of the XVI AD writes in its Jawahir al His-Holiness Sultan the Saint) is stated that the Yasawiyya or- Abzar that one of the daily devotional practices of the 40 days der had 6 kinds of dhikr, of which are described the words and retreats (khalwat) of the Yasawiyya order was the chanting of sounds in use, their synchronicity with breath in and out, and in hikmet (Hazini XVI AD). some cases also accompanying body poses, hand gestures and 55 In Kazakhstan, after perestroika, have been published 17 percussion instruments. The first 4 dhkr consist in the repetition translations of Yasawi’s Hikmet in Kazakh language. Among of the name ‘Allah’, alone or together with Hayyan (‘exists’), them, besides the ones quoted in the text, have been published: intercalated by the sounds ‘Hu, Hay, ha, ya’ with different allu- in 1995, 42 Hikmet translated in Kazakh by V. Golubtsova from sions (‘Hu’ and ‘Hay’ can also mean ‘He’ and ‘She’, and ‘ha’ an Uzbek edition apparently based on the Turkestan manuscript and ‘ya’ are pure interjections echoing the sound of the name (Hakkulov I. 1991, Tashkent, Gafur-Bulom) (Yasawi 1995); in Allah and Hayyan). The fifth dhikr, called Dhikr-i Chayqun 1998, 71 Hikmet translated in Kazakh by E. Duisenbai from an (‘dhkr of the awaken’) pronounces no words but just interjec- anomalous partition of the Istanbul 69-hikmet manuscript (Yas- tions accompanied by the “use of an instrument like a rattle awi 1998a,1998b); in 2008, 149 Hikmet translated in Kazakh by to make a ‘chak-chak’ noise for keeping rhythm, balance and E. Duisenbai from the Kazan edition (Yasawi 2008); in 2011, music in harmony, resulting in a dhikr performed as ‘Hu (chak) the same 149 Hikmet translated in Kazakh and Russian by Anu- – Hu (chak)’ ”. The sixth dhikr (Chahar darb, ‘proclaiming arbek Bokebay, and from Russian to English by V. Trapman the path’) uses just interjections without rhythmic percussions: (Yasawi 2011); etc. ‘Hay, ah ah ah, Hay, Hu’ (Tosun 2015). Briefly, going from the 56 In the Turkestan manuscript, 23 entire stanzas and 16 first to the sixth dhikr, words disappear, and interjections and verses randomly scattered along the text are evidently omitted rhythms gradually merge with out-breath sounds and get interi- from a previous version. Moreover, the manuscript was badly orized. In that way the ‘remembrance’ changes from verbal to bound and some leaves were misplaced, so that the order of po- silent − moves “from the mouth to the heart”. ems had to be reestablished and the job has been done in an 49 The Yasawi’s language is basically denotative and gives unsatisfactory way. space to only few clear metaphors. 57 Very widespread in Central Asia is also the ‘blasphe- 50 Turkic Chagatai was a language of interethnic communi- mous’ popular saying that 3 pilgrimages to Turkestan are equiv- cation of peoples living on the territory of Central Asia, result- alent to 1 pilgrimage to Mecca. ing from the mixing of elements of the languages ​​of different 58 Some manuscript leaves have been evidently misplaced tribes – Tukhshi, Karakhanids, Chigils, Uighurs and Karluks. (see note 56). During the Tamerlane reign, it became the state and court lan- 59 In the Sufi tradition the immortal al-Khidr has been as- guage of the Chagatai ulus. (Baitenova 2012, p. 1) sociated with personages of various religions: the Zoroastrian 51 The Divan-i Hikmet is the second-oldest work of Islam- Sorush; the Biblical Elijah; the Armenian Christian saints John ic-Turkic literature after the Qutadğu Bilig (‘Wisdom which the Baptist, Saint Sarkis, Saint George, etc. brings happiness’). The Qutadğu Bilig is written by Yusūf Khass Hajib of Balasagun around 1070 AD in Qarluq Kara- The article is written on the target project khanid language and Old Uyghur alphabet. It consists of a di- «History and Culture of the Great Steppe» dactic-ethical dialogue, intended for correcting social disorder,

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